Dieter Grau

Dieter Grau (April 24, 1913 – December 17, 2014) was a German-born American aerospace engineer and member of the "von Braun rocket group", at Peenemünde (1939–1945) working on the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was among the engineers who surrendered to the United States and traveled there, providing rocketry expertise via Operation Paperclip, which took them first to Fort Bliss, Texas. Grau was sent by the U.S. Army to White Sands in 1946 to work on the assemblage (with parts shipped from Germany) and testing of the V-2. His wife joined him there in 1947 (Grau's son was born in Texas in 1949). While von Braun was on standby at Fort Bliss, Grau and other German aerospace engineers busily launched V-2s for U.S. scientists to analyze. A total of 67 V-2s were launched at White Sands.

He continued his work with the team when they moved to the Redstone Arsenal (Alabama), and then joined the Marshall Space Flight Center to work for NASA in 1950. Grau served as the director of quality in all of those assignments, including the Saturn V program which took mankind to the moon.

Grau said that von Braun worked closely with then-Colonel Holger Toftoy to develop the kind of team he wanted in the U.S.